


Between the Pages

by PitViperOfDoom



Category: Big Hero 6 (2014)
Genre: Gen, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Nosey teenagers, Stupid dares
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-08
Updated: 2014-12-08
Packaged: 2018-02-28 14:08:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,136
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2735456
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PitViperOfDoom/pseuds/PitViperOfDoom
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hiro loses a dumb bet and ends up spending an afternoon at Fred's place. Turns out, in spite of Fred's aversion to shutting up, he has a secret or two kept close to his chest.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Between the Pages

“So is this an entire bottle of barbecue sauce?” Fred asked, inspecting the container. It was one of the unlabeled translucent squeeze bottles, the kind you could find in a cafeteria. He unscrewed the lid and sniffed. “Hoo! Yeah that is definitely barbecue sauce.”

Hiro grinned wickedly. “Not just any barbecue sauce. It's my aunt's chicken wing recipe.”

“I can't watch this,” Wasabi sighed, turning away. “Seriously. This is painful. He threw his hands upward and returned to his work station. “I've got better things to do, people!”

“I really don't think this is a good idea,” Honey Lemon muttered, though tellingly, she made no move to leave. She had her phone, ready to take a video.

Gogo, on the other hand, was bringing up the stopwatch feature on her own mobile. “So, four minutes for the whole thing? Any rules, stipulations?”

Sliding into the seat across from Fred, Hiro smirked. “Okay, rules are – no throwing up until you finish.”

“Okay, wait – wait.” Fred gave the inside of the cap an experimental lick. “Finished, I mean I'm not gonna be licking the bottom, right? Because I can't reach that.”

“Nah, just has to be empty. Like...” Hiro thought for a moment. “You have to be able to tip it upside down, and nothing drips out.”

“Well, nothing's ever gonna not come out!” Fred protested. “I mean let's be real, there's always gonna be a little bit left. Don't be like 'nothing must drip,' because that's never gonna happen.”

“Chicken,” Gogo whispered.

“Look, we can all judge it when you're done,” Hiro said before Fred had the chance to protest. He smirked again. “I mean. _If_ you finish.”

“I'm gonna _destroy_ my toilet when I get home,” Fred muttered, startling a snort of laughter from Honey.

“All right, four minutes on the clock,” Gogo said. “On your mark, get set, go.”

It took him a little under forty seconds. Fred only paused halfway through to raise the bottle in a mock toast to Hiro. “You are so screwed,” he said, and downed the rest.

* * *

“I still can't believe you did that,” Hiro muttered that Saturday on the way to Fred's house.

“Not nearly as bad as I thought it would be,” Fred said . “Next time, though, I want some actual wings with that sauce. Also, you would not _believe_ the night I had after. Like, this girl in my peer-review group at SF State always complains about cramps when she's on her period, but I think I kind of understand where shes' coming fro-”

“Okay, wow, too much information.” Hiro covered his ears. “Please? I get enough puberty stuff from Baymax."

“Ha!” Fred grinned smugly at him from across the spacious back of the vehicle. “So anyway, how does loss feel, loser?”

Hiro twiddled his thumbs. “Well, I'm in a limo right now, so... can't complain.”

Fred stretched luxuriously. “Yeah, it's pretty sweet, right? In like two years, Heathcliff'll start letting me use the wet bar in this thing.”

The stolid butler's voice floated back from the driver's seat. “I said nothing of the sort, suh.”

“Anyway, thanks for this,” Fred went on. “This final is freaking me out, you don't even know. I need all the help I can get.”

“Hey, a bet's a bet.” Hiro grinned back. “Besides, physics is cake. It's just applied math.”

“And I hate math,” Fred grumbled. “Math makes me cry over the phone to Heathcliff. Sorry, Heathcliff.”

“No trouble at all, suh.”

“Just so you know,” Hiro said as the limo pulled into Fred's spacious garage “I've never actually tutored someone before. So I might suck at it.”

“Hey, it's cool. Just use small words and we'll be fine.”

To Hiro's mild surprise, Fred took him halfway down the hall from his bedroom to a much neater room lined with bookshelves rather than comic memorabilia. “Probably shouldn't study where I sleep,” he reasoned. “I mean, you've seen the place. Too many distractions.” A thoughtful look crossed his face. “Actually, that's probably why I need so much help in the first place. Library's good, though.”

“It... wow, it really is.” Hiro turned in a little circle to take in the entire room. It was easily as big as the main dining area of the Lucky Cat, and everything was bright, neat, and polished. He had never seen so many books gathered in one place, at least not in someone's home. There were a few comfy-looking armchairs scattered throughout the place. The desk in the middle was all polished dark wood with a few dings and scratches that showed its use. At the moment, it was piled with scribbled-on worksheets and textbooks. “What kind of books do you keep in here? Novels? Nonfiction? Or what?”

“Little of column A, little of column B,” Fred replied airily as he sifted through the mess on the desk. “Like those two shelves over there are devoted to my mom's Star Trek novel collection. I dunno if she even reads those anymore.”

Hiro stood on tiptoe to see, cracking a grin. “Heh. So how are we-”

Fred stood ramrod-straight, as if having a brainwave. “Hang on, I'm gonna go have Heathcliff make up some snacks. Man, you have not _lived_ until you've had his cookies.”

Still in awe of Fred's in-home library, Hiro answered without taking his eyes off the high bookshelves. “No peanuts, right? I mean, I won't die, but they make me cough weird.”

“I don't think so, but I'll let him know.” Fred darted out of the room, only to pause at the door. “Feel free to look around and stuff, we have so many books it's not even funny.”

“Cool, thanks, man.” Fred was out the door, and Hiro wandered through the shelves curiously.

They were marked like an actual library, separated by genre and alphabetized by author. Romance here, science fiction and fantasy here, even a few shelves devoted to YA novels. Did Heathcliff do the organizing around here? Every single shelf was dusted and shining.

Except one, Hiro couldn't help but notice. Four bookshelves down from the desk and about three off the ground, one shelf was dusty. Hiro rolled his eyes a little, wondering if he was turning into Wasabi. It wasn't his fault, though – when it was the only dusty shelf in literally the entire room, it kind of stood out.

Curious, Hiro stopped to inspect it. More comic books – well, graphic novels, to be exact. A few mangas, too. Everything from _Watchmen_ to _Fruits Basket_ – God, did Fred read _Fruits Basket_? That was some blackmail material right there. Hiro pulled out one of the volumes to see how battered it was. If it was dog-eared and torn, he was going to laugh.

The book slid out with more rustling than it should have. Hiro frowned, crouched down, and squinted into the gap the book had left. Carefully he pushed the remaining books to either side. There were scraps of paper in there, squashed between the books and the back of the shelf. They were crumpled and creased, but he could see messy scribblings on them.

_Oh my God if he writes fanfiction I'm gonna_

Hiro didn't bother to finish the thought before reaching in and dragging out a handful of paper scraps. Some were folded, others were balled up, and most of them were a little torn at the edges, but for the most part they were still legible. With a quick look at the door to make sure Fred wasn't on his way back, he chose one and flattened it out.

 _You know me as Fred, but you can call me the guy of your dreams_. The entire sentence was scratched out. Hiro raised an eyebrow, put it aside, and selected another.

 _I think you're really cool and we should hang out_ – again, it was crossed out, with _WOW WE ALREADY HANG OUT, REALLY FRED?_ scribbled on top in the same handwriting.

Bewildered, Hiro went through a few more and found that they were pretty much the same. A handful of words, sometimes complete sentences, mostly x'ed and scribbled out.

_I think you're cute, you want to get coffee someti_

_I'm glad we're friends but sometimes I think we should_

_I know this sounds crazy but I think we belong together. Do you_

_Roses are red violets are oh fuck this_

They were all like that. Hiro's eyes widened with each scrap. No way, there was no way. He picked up the last one.

 _Do you like me?_ Followed by a list of multiple choice answers – _Yes, Definitely, Absolutely_.

Hiro put the scrap down, eyes wide. _Fred has a crush. Holy crap, Fred has a crush_ . And what was more, it was someone he already knew as a friend. But the question was, did he know them from SF State or from SFIT? Hiro squirmed a little with secondhand embarrassment when he realized that there was a very good chance that this crush was Gogo or Honey Lemon. And that was just – wow. _Wow._ Not that it didn't make sense – Fred was friendly with both of them, and he hung off of them to the point of being obnoxious when they were trying to work. But Fred was like that with everyone, wasn't he? He was certainly like that Wasabi, and Hiro was willing to bet money that he had probably been like that with Tadashi.

He frowned. _Now if I were a good friend, I would put these back and pretend I never saw them._ He gathered up the note scraps, frowning uncertainly. With another glance back at the door, he piled them on the shelf again. Satisfying his curiosity wouldn't hurt, would it? As long as he kept quiet about it, it would be okay. And besides, he was an _excellent_ actor.

Mind made up, he examined the books on the dusty shelf again, squinting to see if there were any more papers. All it took was a little more poking through the same shelf before luck struck him. There was a gap between the pages of one of the volumes, as if someone had left a marker in. Hiro pulled it out and opened it to find a folded piece of paper. With one last glance at the door, he opened it.

For a split second he wondered if this one wasn't something completely different. Aside from being binder paper, it looked nothing like the other scraps. The page was filled from top to bottom, with no x's, scribbles, or lines through the words. The handwriting was neat and deliberate, as if Fred had treated every individual letter with extreme care. Confused, Hiro read.

_If you're reading this, then it might mean that I am not as much of a coward as I could be._

_You've probably guessed by now that I'm not the most skilled when it comes to speaking. But I am, among other things, an English major, so if writing my thoughts does not sway you, then nothing will. After a lot of wishy-washy efforts, including a few attempts at poetry that have since found a home in the fireplace –_ (Good God, he'd tried to write poetry and burned it. Hiro would have given his left arm too see that.) – _I have decided that straightforward honesty is the best policy._

_So I won't beat around the bush – I have had feelings for you for months. Possibly longer. Maybe I've felt this way since the day we met. Future historians may classify it as a crush, but I'd like to think that it's more than that. In fact, I know that it is. I have been tiptoeing around these feelings for a long time, but in recent months I have never been more certain of them._

_Can you blame me? You are one of the best friends I have. You're kind. You're patient with me (and believe me, that is a feat in itself). And most of all, you took what was only supposed to be an extra bullet point on my future graduate application, and turned it into the best and brightest days of my life. I'm not a student at SFIT, but when I'm with you, I wish that I could have been._

_I know that you deserve more than me, but I also know that you deserve the truth. And the truth is that every time you smile at me, I stop breathing for a few seconds. The truth is that sometimes I feel more at home with you and the others than I do in my actual home. The truth is, you're beautiful and I love you with all my heart._

_I can't even think of a nickname for you. If you ever wondered why, it's because you're already perfect, just the way you are._

_Love,  
_ _Fred_

There was a strangled squeak behind him. Hiro jumped, nearly shrieking in alarm, as scrambling footsteps alerted him to Fred's arrival. He had barely turned around when the page was snatched out of his hands, and he found himself staring wide-eyed at his friend.

“That's nothing!” Fred held the paper against his chest, the letter-side facing away from Hiro. He was shaking slightly, staring back with round eyes and a look of shell-shocked horror on his face. “I mean it's – it's, uh. It's for school!” He hesitated, fidgeting. “For, um... see, I'm taking a class. On... rhetoric! And this was j-just an assignment, a-and I just. Um. It's nothing, I swear, I mean you you don't even know them, you haven't... ” His voice trailed off.

Mortified, Hiro shook his head. “No no, it's my fault.” Hiro's voice shook. “I'm sorry, it's just... I noticed the shelf was different, and I thought it was kind of weird, and then I saw some paper back there, and I just... I shouldn't have read it. I'm _really_ sorry, Fred, I never... would've...” His eyes fell on the paper that Fred still clutched. The back of the paper was facing him, the surface divided into rectangles by the creases from folding it. It wasn't blank. In one of the rectangles was a single name.

 _Tadashi_.

The room seemed to drop in temperature. “Oh.” The noise left Hiro in a breath. “ _Oh_.”

Fred followed his eyes, looked down, and snatched the paper away to hide it behind his back. “Oh _God_ , um – I forgot that I-” He took in the look on Hiro's face, and his voice seemed to catch in his throat. All at once, his shoulders drooped and he shut his eyes with a sigh.

“I'm sorry,” Hiro whispered. “I shouldn't have looked-”

“No it's-” With shaking hands, Fred folded the paper again. “It's fine. I mean it's not like it matters, right?” He smiled, but it didn't reach his eyes. Hiro recognized that smile – he had seen it in the mirror more times than he could count. Fred looked away to stare at the floor. “Sorry you had to see that, I mean it's weird and creepy and stuff.”

Hiro felt a painful lump form in his throat. Guilt gnawed at him, and he wanted to say something, but what was someone supposed to say at a time like this?

“Di-id-” He stopped when his voice cracked. “Um. Did he know?”

Fred crossed his arms tightly over his chest, closing himself off. “No,” he said. “I mean, I don't think so. I never told him. Maybe he figured it out, I dunno.”

“Oh.” Hiro fidgeted, feeling entirely useless. “So you never... gave that to him, then.”

“No.” Fred looked away, looking anywhere but Hiro. “But I was going to.” He bit his lip hard enough that when he released it, his teeth left marks. “It was so stupid, 'cause I was – I made a promise to myself, that if the showcase went well and you got in, I was gonna take that as a sign.” He stopped, shutting eyes for a moment. He took a deep breath before continuing. “A-and then you got in, so I had this with me, and we were waiting back at the cafe, and... I was gonna give it to him. I was gonna do it, and then...” His voice trailed off.

“It's not stupid,” Hiro said quietly.

“Isn't it?” Fred looked up at him, finally meeting his eyes again. His crossed arms tightened. “I mean – _look_ at me.” The bitter tone in his voice shocked Hiro for a moment. “I'm Fred. I'm the dumb one. I dance around in a lizard costume and do stupid dares. And Tadashi was – well, _Tadashi._ I don't need to tell you.He built and programmed robots for fun. And I just... I read Jane Austen and write bullshit essays for class, and I can't even take a Physics 1 test without stress-puking.”

“But you were his _friend_.” Hiro took a step forward but hesitated, unsure of what to do. “Look, I don't know about any of this stuff, but he cared about you, I know it. Even if he didn't... you know... he wouldn't think it was stupid. He had this weird habit of, y'know, caring about people's feelings. And he wouldn't have been your friend if he didn't think you were cool.”

The tightly crossed arms relaxed slightly. “Yeah. I know that. I just wish...” Fred tilted his head back, eyes wide and unblinking. “I wish...”

“I'm not good at this kind of thing,” Hiro admitted. “But, um... do you need a hug or something?”

Fred was quiet for long enough that Hiro was sure he was going to say no. He wiped his eyes quickly before looking down at him again. “So... you don't think it's weird?” he said finally. “I mean, I was... crushing on your big brother and stuff.”

“So weird,” Hiro replied, straight-faced. “If it'd gone anywhere, I would have cockblocked both of you at every possible opportunity. Exaggerated gagging noises would have been involved.”

Fred grinned at him with wet eyes. “I think I'll take that hug.”

Having someone cry on his shoulder was a new and kind of frightening experience for Hiro. It had never happened during the wake or the funeral – everyone had been determined to give him space, to keep from piling their sadness on top of his. He still wasn't quite prepared for it now. But he did it anyway. _Tadashi would have_. “For what it's worth,” he said. “I'm glad you were friends with him.”

“Same.” Fred's voice was muffled. “I'm glad he had a brother as awesome as you.” He broke off to sniffle. “Um. So, Physics?”

“I think it can wait a little.” Hiro gave him what he hoped was a reassuring pat. “Also? I can't believe you hid them in your _Fruits Basket_ collection.”

“I take it back, you're a little shit.”

The cookies were delicious.

 


End file.
